Deciding between a watch-and-wait approach and systemic therapy in patients with newly diagnosed follicular lymphoma should be carefully assessed based on specific disease characteristics, with follow-up tailored toward patients’ risk of relapse, according to John P. Leonard, MD.
A number of promising biologic therapies are beginning to transform the treatment of adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, with the greatest potential seen with blinatumomab and inotuzumab ozogamicin in combination with chemotherapy, according to a presentation by Hagop M. Kantarjian, MD, at the 37th Annual CFS.<br />
Treatment targeting molecular pathways such as <em>BRAF, </em>HER2<em>,</em> and <em>RAS</em> has typically been reserved for later lines of therapy for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Benjamin A. Weinberg, MD, said that agents targeting these pathways are not yet ready for the upfront setting, but data from ongoing trials suggest that these agents may eventually have a role to play in first- and second-line treatment.
In an interview with <em>Targeted Oncology</em>, Daniel Catenacci, MD, discussed the clinical trials supporting immunotherapeutic options for patients with GEJ cancer. He also highlighted how physicians can sequence these agents appropriately in their patients.
Immunotherapeutic agents have grown in popularity for treating mismatch repair–deficient metastatic colorectal cancer, becoming the standard of care in the second line, Howard Hochster, MD, told an audience at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Oncology Conference. Furthermore, ongoing clinical trials suggest that these agents may play a larger role in treating CRC going forward.
David H. Ilson, MD, PhD, discusses the current role of pembrolizumab in patients with gastric cancer or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma based on the results from the KEYNOTE-062 trial.
What is the ideal first-line therapy for nonresectable, non–transplantable eligible, liver-only hepatocellular carcinoma? In a debate at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Oncology Conference, Mark Yarchoan, MD, had the unenviable task of convincing the audience that systemic therapy was the way to go.
In an interview with <em>Targeted Oncology</em>, Michael A. Choti, MD, MBA discussed the treatment landscape for patients with pancreatic cancer, as well as how the role of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in this space is changing. He highlights advantages of neoadjuvant strategies, and also some other treatment options for patients with pancreatic cancer.
Ghassan K. Abou-Alfa, MD, discusses the current role for ramucirumab for the treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma in the second-line setting.
The FOLFIRINOX regimen remains the treatment of choice for patients with pancreatic cancer even as clinical trials exploring potential therapies, including CD40 and CPI-613, offer the possibility of new options for a notoriously difficult-to-treat disease, Davendra P.S. Sohal, MD, MPH, told an audience at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Oncology Conference.
Using a measure known as the growth modulation index, patients with TRK fusion–positive cancers who were treated with larotrectinib had a clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival compared with the time to progression on their prior treatment, an analysis of patients enrolled in 1 of 3 clinical trials has found.
George Sledge, Jr., MD, discusses the overall survival data of the phase III MONARCH-2 trial in advanced hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.
In the CheckMate-358 study, the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab showed durable clinical activity in patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer, regardless of tumor PD-L1 expression.
In the phase III ATTRACTION-3 study, nivolumab prolonged overall survival compared with chemotherapy in patients with previously treated advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, according to findings presented at the 2019 ESMO Congress.
Progression-free survival was not improved with pembrolizumab over chemotherapy in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma, missing the primary endpoint of the phase III European Thoracic Oncology Platform PROMISE-meso trial presented at the 2019 ESMO Congress.
The risk of progression or death was reduced by 63% with ivosidenib as treatment of pretreated patients with IDH1-mutant advanced cholangiocarcinoma compared with placebo, according to data from the phase III ClarIDHy study that was presented at the 2019 ESMO Congress.
CDK4/6 inhibitor abemaciclib plus endocrine therapy led to significant benefits in a population of predominantly Chinese women with advanced hormone receptor–positive/HER2-negative breast cancer, according to data from 2 randomized trials presented at the 2019 ESMO Congress.
In patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma, atezolizumab and chemotherapy improved median progression-free survival by 1.9 months compared with placebo and chemotherapy. However, no overall survival benefit was seen, according to results of the phase III IMvigor130 trial presented at the 2019 ESMO Congress.
In the phase III PROfound trial, olaparib improved radiographic progression-free survival compared to either abiraterone acetate or enzalutamide in men with heavily pretreated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, who had homologous recombination repair gene alterations, according to findings presented at the 2019 ESMO Congress.
David S. Hong, MD, discusses updated data with larotrectinib (Vitrakvi) in <em>TRK</em> fusion-positive solid tumors at the ESMO Congress 2019.
Strong objective responses rates were seen in the phase I/II LIBRETTO trial, which studied RET inhibition with selpercatinib in patients with <em>RET</em>-mutant medullary thyroid cancer and for those with other <em>RET</em> fusion-positive thyroid cancer. The registrational findings were recently presented at ESMO Congress 2019.
Three clinical trials presented at the 2019 ESMO Congress show that the tropomyosin receptor kinase inhibitor larotrectinib continues to show anti-tumor activity, including long-lasting objective responses and low toxicity, according to results from an integrated analysis.
Results from the phase III MONARCH 2 trial showed that the addition of the CDK4/6 inhibitor abemaciclib to fulvestrant improved overall survival by 9.4 months compared with fulvestrant and placebo in patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer who progressed on prior endocrine therapy, according to data presented at the 2019 ESMO Congress.
A subgroup of patients with triple-negative breast cancer who had immune cell PD-L1 expression, by the SP142 immunohistochemistry assay had responses to atezolizumab and nab-paclitaxel, regardless of whether they had primary or metastatic disease, according to an exploratory biomarker substudy of IMpassion130.
Patients with advanced hormone receptor–positive, HER2-positive breast cancer had improved progression-free survival when receiving the CDK4/6 inhibitor abemaciclib and endocrine therapy with trastuzumab compared with trastuzumab and chemotherapy, according to findings from the randomized phase II monarcHER trial.<sup>1</sup>
Frontline atezolizumab plus carboplatin plus etoposide has shown an improvement in overall survival over placebo plus CP/ET in the treatment of patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer, according to updated results from the phase III IMpower133 trial.
Ribociclib with fulvestrant resulted in a clinically significant overall survival benefit compared with placebo in postmenopausal patients with hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer, according to findings from the phase III MONALEESA-3 trial presented at the 2019 ESMO Congress.
Patients with early triple-negative breast cancer receiving neoadjuvant treatment with the combination of pembrolizumab and chemotherapy showed extended pathological complete response rates by 13.6 percentage points compared with chemotherapy alone in the phase III KEYNOTE-522 study.
A randomized phase II study with patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer showed unexpected improved overall survival with the addition of trilaciclib, an investigational CDK4/6 inhibitor, to gemcitabine and cisplatin, even though the combination failed to meet a safety-related primary endpoint.
The addition of atezolizumab to ado-trastuzumab emtansine improved overall survival in patients with previously treated HER2-positive advanced breast cancer compared with T-DM1 alone, according to a second OS analysis of the phase II KATE2 trial presented at the 2019 ESMO Congress.